Mama Updates Top 8

Bellflower (Calif.) St. John Bosco offensive guard Damien Mama updates us on his recruitment and what makes UCLA stand out among his top eight...

Damien Mama is the top offensive lineman out West and the top guard prospect in the nation. He plays tackle for the Braves but at 365 pounds, a move inside to guard at the next level seems likely.

"I came out here to support Das (Tautalatasi)," Mama said. "That's my boy right there so it was good to see him and good to see him play well. De La Salle has a great team and it would be great to play them at the end of the year but I'm focusing on Trinity League right now, every team we play is going to be good."

On the recruiting front, Mama said he has dropped one SEC school from his list and added another.

"Florida is out and LSU is in," Mama said. "LSU just offered me and I'm pretty interested in them. I like what they're doing, they have a great program so I'm going to give them a look. I'm taking my first visit this weekend to Wisconsin and that should be great. There are a bunch of us going from California, my teammate Jacob Tuioti-Mariner, Joe Mixon and Tyler Luatua so it should be fun.

"Then I have Notre Dame next weekend and Alabama in early November. I'll probably set BYU for sometime in January and I still don't know about my 5th visit right now. All of those schools plus Ohio State, UCLA and USC are my top eight."

With the USC job now open, Mama said he's curious to see not just who the new head coach will be but the style of offense.

"Hopefully they run a pro-style offense because that's the kind of lineman I am," Mama said. "I'm not much of a spread guy, UCLA is really the only team on my list who runs some spread. I really like Coach Klemm a lot though and Xavier Su'a-Filo is sort of a mentor to me, he did his (Mormon) Mission and came back and played and that's what I want to do so I talk to him about a lot of things.

"With USC, everyone knows that's the school I grew up rooting for but honestly and I keep telling people this, I'm really looking at my decision as a business decision. I have to do what's best for me, not just who I liked when I was young. USC is a great program and they have always recruited me hard. Coach (Ed) Orgeron and Tee Martin were at my game Friday night and they really want me but I'm just going to go through the process, take all my visits and pick the best place for me."